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Dear Friend,

With the election less than two months away, we’ve been working to highlight the outsized influence of money in our political system and preparing our Voter’s Edge California ([link removed]) voting guide. At the same time, we’re also focusing attention on a newer threat to our democracy: the spread of false and misleading political content online. Recently, that’s meant holding both politicians and social media companies accountable.

Last month we joined several allies in a lawsuit ([link removed]) challenging President Trump on an executive order seeking to punish social media companies for fact checking the President’s online posts. That order came after the President tweeted false information calling the security of voting-by-mail into question and Twitter added a note to the tweet pointing people toward factual information about mail-in-ballots. To help protect our democracy, social media companies must do a better job of moderating false and misleading content. Our lawsuit will preserve their ability to do so — even in the face of a President attempting to sow chaos to boost his re-election campaign.

But standing up to self-serving politicians alone is not enough to improve political information online. We must demand better from social media giants like Facebook as well. Last week, Facebook announced a handful of cosmetic changes designed to safeguard the election — but the meager adjustments don’t go nearly far enough. We outlined exactly where Facebook’s changes fall short ([link removed]) on MapLight.org as well as in our weekly Decoder newsletter ([link removed]) tracking news and research on deceptive digital politics. And because we know Congress will not put meaningful reforms in place ahead of the election, we’re supporting a new Election Integrity Roadmap ([link removed]) from Accountable Tech to demand that social platforms immediately implement bold policies to prevent the
spread of misinformation leading up to the election.

In the weeks ahead, we’ll continue fighting to protect the integrity of the 2020 election as well as the long-term health of our democracy. Thank you for your support during this critical time.

Best,
Dan

Daniel G. Newman
MapLight President & Co-Founder
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